What architect and design employers actually offer across medical, ancillary, leave, and retirement, benchmarked against the wider market.
Architecture and design firms hire against a project pipeline that expands and contracts with construction demand. Holding experienced staff through a slow cycle is what determines whether a firm can take the next large commission when it arrives.
1. Medical
Design studios skew younger than the professional services average, and that shapes what the workforce values in a medical plan. Predictable cost tends to matter more than breadth of network.
Mployer benchmark data for this industry against the market, with the unlabelled bars showing how far the figure moves across employer size.
Axis truncated. The floor is shown on the scale. Cohort low and high are drawn but not labelled.
2. Ancillary
Disability and life cover are where these firms quietly outperform. For a studio built around a small number of licensed professionals, the loss of one of them is a business risk as much as a personal one.
Mployer benchmark data for this industry against the market, with the unlabelled bars showing how far the figure moves across employer size.
Axis truncated. The floor is shown on the scale. Cohort low and high are drawn but not labelled.
| Industry ancillary measure | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Employer contribution share for dental, single and family | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Employer contribution share for vision, single and family | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Average total monthly dental and vision premium | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Short-term disability offer rate and benefit design | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Long-term disability offer rate and maximum monthly benefit | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Basic life benefit multiple and flat dollar median | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Share of plans where life is fully employer paid | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Voluntary life offer rate | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Critical illness and accident offer rates | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Long-term care insurance offer rate | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
3. Leave
Leave in a deadline-driven studio is judged on whether it survives a deadline. Firms that protect time off through a submission week get credit for it in a way that a policy document cannot buy.
Mployer benchmark data for this industry against the market, with the unlabelled bars showing how far the figure moves across employer size.
Axis truncated. The floor is shown on the scale. Cohort low and high are drawn but not labelled.
| Industry leave measure | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Consolidated plan accrual at 1, 5, 10, and 20 years of service | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Non-consolidated vacation accrual by tenure | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Paid holidays offer rate and median days | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Paid sick leave offer rate and median days | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Sick leave carryover treatment | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Unpaid family leave offer rate | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Paid personal leave offer rate | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Funeral, jury duty, and military leave offer rates | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
4. Retirement
Retirement matters to a workforce that expects to move between firms across a career. Portability and vesting terms shape whether a benefit is seen as real or theoretical.
Mployer benchmark data for this industry against the market, with the unlabelled bars showing how far the figure moves across employer size.
Axis truncated. The floor is shown on the scale. Cohort low and high are drawn but not labelled.
| Industry retirement measure | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Median and percentile employer contribution rates | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Automatic enrollment availability and default rate | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Automatic escalation availability | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Vesting schedule distribution | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Minimum age and service eligibility requirements | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Plan loan and in-service withdrawal availability | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Defined contribution participation rate | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Retiree healthcare availability before and after age 65 | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
5. Additional optimizations
Beyond the core four, these firms tend to focus on parental leave and flexible working, which map closely to the life stage of a typical studio roster.
| Industry additional optimization measure | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Waiting period distribution: none, 30, 60, and 90 or more days | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Fertility medication, IUI, and IVF coverage rates | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Cryopreservation and adoption assistance rates | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Mental health resource expansion in the past year | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Telehealth and in-person provider additions | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Wellness programs: coaching, weight management, biometric screening | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| GLP-1 coverage and preauthorization requirements | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Remote and hybrid work availability | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
| Retiree healthcare availability, under 65 and 65 plus | See 50 State DetailSee 7 Size Cohort DetailSee All |
FAQ
Related benchmarks
Figures on this page are drawn from Mployer benchmark data, all region and all size averages unless stated otherwise, and are rounded to the nearest whole point. Values shown in the tables are available inside Mployer Insights+. Read the full benchmarking methodology.
.svg)
.svg)